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i am an Atheist ... Most of the time, I am quite tolerant about other people beliefs. I understand it sometimes gives them strength, courage or relief. Faith is a powerful drug.

But there are times where religions just drive me nuts. This is when religious folks refuse to take care of themself and their family because of religions beliefs, it's also when someone tries, even a little bit, amke religious beliefs anything more than a strictly private matter... which is the case here.

So each time a US president says, God bless America, I die a little inside.

I don't mind God Bless America. I mind in God We Trust on the money, and One Nation Under God on the pledge of allegiance (which is an anticommunism thing that is not in the original).

Ironically, the other Abrahamic religions - Judaism, Islam and some forms of Christianity - consider mainstream Christianity's Holy Trinity to be anything but monotheism.

Catholicism takes this further. It's really a polytheistic religion in disguise. Catholics can pray to and pay homage or whatever to saints. The patron saint of this or that is the same as the god of this or that, essentially.

Funnily enough, some parts of the Torah (and therefore the Old Testament) do call God Elohim. Elohim is actually a plural in Hebrew; the singular would be Eloah (and it's no coincidence that Eloah is similar to Allah).

Funnily enough, some parts of the Torah (and therefore the Old Testament) do call God Elohim. Elohim is actually a plural in Hebrew; the singular would be Eloah (and it's no coincidence that Eloah is similar to Allah).

The thing is, Zoroastrism, which predates other three big 'monotheism' had a dual opposites forces, not unlike God an Satan or Allah and Shaytan (Except in both cases they are lower beings to begin with , fallen angel, rebellous Djinn...) If my memory serves me well, in hebraic litteraure it's more of a concept not unlike the Zoroastrist one.

Fun Fact: Zoroastrism is what the failed reboot of Prince of Persia's mythology is based on :P

The El in Elohim means God. [edit, the God who hears me is El Roi, which makes me wonder about the Jetsons] An example is Elijah, which means "my god is Yahweh." El was the father god in Canaanite mythology, so several cities had their own version of the various Gods that would be Baal*, El*, etc. Yahweh was a warrior god who underwent syncretism with El in the highlands of Southern Israel. The use of the different names of God in Genesis reflect the process of compiling the Bible from several different sources and areas.

How did a discussion about a beautiful moment/charming joke turn into a "Things Wot I Don't Like" about religion?

It's like there is some kind of gravitational force on the internet that drives any and all debate down the same bloody paths.

The last several posts have just been discussing aspects of religion? There was a very, very brief side discussion that lasted about 4-6 posts, but the rest have either been on topic regarding machinarium or simply talking about aspects of religions in and of itself.

Catholicism takes this further. It's really a polytheistic religion in disguise. Catholics can pray to and pay homage or whatever to saints. The patron saint of this or that is the same as the god of this or that, essentially.

No. Perhaps it got like that at a point, because the people of the Church wanted money and that could be got through the Relics of Saints and that sort of thing. That's kinda why that guy nailed his ramblings to Church doors in Germany.

However, Catholic teaching is that the Saints are Human. That's the point of them... they are as human as you or I, yet were able to live Sanctified lives. Thus, we should be able to as well. You don't pray TO a Saint, you pray WITH a Saint, in Communion with them.

As for general Religious tolerance, there was the Episcopalian Church in Aberdeen that opened its doors to the Mosalmáns because they had no room in their Mosque. It does get quite cold in Aberdeen though.

The reverance of saints, who are endowed with the demigod like ability to get God's attention certainly has some aspect of polytheism. Non-catholic Christians tend to criticize Saints in particular for this. However, non-Christian (especially Islamic) critics tend to harp on the Trinity (with or without Sofia), not the saints as an area of polytheism. And to be truthful, different aspects of the same god that perform different tasks certainly has a strong element of polytheism.

Originally Posted by sabrage

Which failed reboot was that?

Prince of Persia and the Seven Dragons. Also, Prince of Persia goes to Camp.

The 2008 one... I don't know if failed is the good adjective for it... I liked it. But they never explored this universe again and the one after that was in sand of time trilogy, and since he doesn't ahve another name; Well you get the point.

Funnily enough, some parts of the Torah (and therefore the Old Testament) do call God Elohim. Elohim is actually a plural in Hebrew; the singular would be Eloah (and it's no coincidence that Eloah is similar to Allah).

Except, the preacher at the Pride Parade is rambling about the Fairies she believes in. I'm saying that all those Fairies are just as equally preposterous.

"Except I'm right!"

My point was that you're in their face and using language with the intent to incite argument, not discourse with genuine concern for their ultimate good. People can see right through us when we're not loving.

But have you heard about anything like that actually happening ? The closest thing I know is the All Religions Temple in Kazań, the capitol of Tatarstan. Even so, each religion seems to have a separate part of the temple dedicated to it.

Sharing the same space looks much more impressive to me. It implies not just tolerance, but the ability to cooperate, compromise and focus on solving problems instead of creating them. The concept is incredibly simple, but good luck finding something like that in our world.

Having separate parts of the temple is more convenient than working on that fixed schedule. It's not like they would cooperate and solve more problems than "please get me some extra candles over here".
I mean, imagine the logistics of scheduling ceremonies for 7 religions and bringing people in and out in a timely manner in the same space.
I suppose sharing the floor is a cute idea but it's not practical at all, not even for robots.

My point was that you're in their face and using language with the intent to incite argument, not discourse with genuine concern for their ultimate good. People can see right through us when we're not loving.

What the actual fuck are you talking about? I'm not in any body's face? I'm not preaching to anyone, trying to incite an argument, etc. It seems to me that YOU are the one trying to start an argument with your patently false idea that "Atheists are just like Religious people". I won't give you the satisfaction.